Build-A-Bear Workshop Tech Stack

Experiential retail brand operating ~400 stores with data modernization underway

Retail St Louis, Missouri 5,001–10,000 employees Founded 1997 Public Company

Build-A-Bear Workshop operates a global store network (~400 locations across company-owned and franchise operations) with an active hiring push concentrated in store sales roles. The tech stack reveals a dual-layer architecture: UKG for workforce management and Salesforce for CRM on the operational side, paired with a modern data infrastructure (Kafka, Spark, dbt, Snowflake, Databricks, Power BI) that maps to their stated priority around data platform modernization and real-time analytics. The mismatch between 494 total active roles (437 in sales) and sparse engineering/data headcount signals they are executing platform modernization through managed services and vendor tooling rather than a large in-house build.

Tech Stack 50 technologies

Core StackAdobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Python Apache Airflow dbt Apache Spark Kafka Power BI AWS Snowflake Databricks MuleSoft Salesforce Power Automate Power Apps Azure Data Factory Power Platform Jira Azure DevOps UKG Outlook Microsoft Office SQL Azure GCP Fabric Vertex Azure Synapse Teams SharePoint+19 more

What Build-A-Bear Workshop Is Building

◆Challenges

Store compliance issues
Meeting sales targets
Increasing sales
Inventory management
Meeting store sales goals
Store operational challenges
Ensuring compliance with policies
Achieving financial goals
Team performance
Modernizing data platform

▲Active Projects

Event program development
Seasonal shops
Seasonal opportunity identification
Data & platform modernization roadmap
Unified commerce integration
Real-time analytics platform
Enterprise-wide reporting and analytics solutions
Strategic partnership building
Automation enhancements
Product release and compliance verification

Hiring Activity

Decelerating490 roles · 120 in 30d

Department

Sales

437

Ops

Operations

Data

Product

Design

Engineering

Seniority

Junior

334

Lead

Mid

Manager

Senior

Director

Notable leadership hires: Sales Lead

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About Build-A-Bear Workshop

Build-A-Bear Workshop is a publicly traded experiential retail brand founded in 1997, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, with approximately 5,001–10,000 employees globally. The company operates around 400 stores across the United States, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, Colombia, and the United Kingdom through direct ownership, plus franchise locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, and China. The core business centers on in-store customization of stuffed animals and entertainment experiences for children and families. Current operational priorities include seasonal event programming, unified commerce integration across store and digital channels, inventory management, store compliance, and meeting regional sales targets. Recent infrastructure investments focus on real-time analytics, enterprise reporting, and modernizing the underlying data platform.

HeadquartersSt Louis, Missouri

Company Size5,001–10,000 employees

Founded1997

Hiring MarketsUnited States, Canada

Frequently Asked Questions

What tech stack does Build-A-Bear Workshop use?

Build-A-Bear uses UKG for workforce management, Salesforce for CRM, and a modern data stack including Kafka, Apache Spark, dbt, Snowflake, Databricks, and Power BI. They also leverage AWS, Azure, and GCP across compute and cloud services, with Microsoft Office, Power Platform tools, and Jira for collaboration and project management.

Where is Build-A-Bear Workshop headquartered?

Build-A-Bear Workshop is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded in 1997 and is a publicly traded company with approximately 5,001–10,000 employees worldwide.